WhatsApp updated yet again, includes more bug fixing

The WhatsApp team has released another update for their Windows Phone app. This is becoming regular news, so much so that we're tempted to set up a new website dedicated to the app and its frequent releases. Versions 2.9.2 and .3 both included more improvements and features, so what has 2.9.4 got to offer consumers?

Like the most recent version bumps (the last one published only yesterday), WhatsApp 2.9.4 contains bug fixes. According to the changelog that has been added to the app listing on the store, we're looking at the following:

Fix crashes on Settings and app install on a small number of 7.x devices

When whatsapp is used without audio API it loads very fast but then after u again open it ( audio API gets active) it loads very slow. Why don't they give users option to decide whether they want to use audio API or not by giving option under settings ?

Serious question: If Microsoft really wants top apps to work for their users, why aren't they putting Whatsapp on priority status and workiing with Whatsapp to give them an API that doesnt interfere with audio?

And despite all the updates its still slow in updating and will often show you a message in the top of your screen but when you go into the app, the message isn't there. I'm all for updates to improve apps, but sometimes its better to just hold back on releasing an app until it's working well.

The Audio API is a pain for a lot of people and a common reason to nag... but... it's responsible for showing you the messages you get immediately when you're off and resume the app, removing the need for waiting for the app to reconnect, which was annoying in the first releases and which is annoying in all other chat clients (IM+, Kik, ...). It provides a big convenience, on the expense of just showing you an audio icon which you can live with until WP offers a better way to run background tasks. Why do people nag about it? It makes the user experience much smoother :)

That is totally incorrect. It has nothing to do with instant resume or connect. It was pushed in Whatsapp in order to let people stay connected on ONLY WiFi connection. Back in the day, we did not have option to keep WiFi alive, which means everyone had to connect to 3G in order to keep getting notifications. We don't need that now on WP8. WP7.X guys still need that though. It also streams small kbs of data all the time at regular intervals to keep the connection open and this drains battery. That is why people nag about it. An app wrongly coded, abusing the APIs and costing users their battery life. This is an apt example of an app monopoly since most of the users have their friends already on Whatsapp who wouldn't move to any other client, we have to put up with this sort of crappy app. Some like guys at WPC have moved on to Kik, many have tried WeChat, but these IM apps are nothing if you don't have friends on them. Whatsapp team knows that and hence happily abuses the system, Microsoft lets them do that and we keep talking about it and complaining to deaf ears all the time.

I fully agree with you, if people don't do something about it this will never be on their high priority list. Only now they're starting to make some worthwhile changes after so many months because apps like WeChat keep innovating.

you are right, i am also complaining why my app needs for some small changes 7 or more days for the certification process, and whatsapp can have 3 days in a row with 3 updates. i have also paid like the whatsapp team to publish apps and i want the same treatment for everybody. the other thing i am angry on is Microsoft said that an app must start in 5 or fewer seconds, their own facebook app for wp7 doesnt start in 10 seconds, sometimes even more. the problem is the big developers dont have to follow some mayor rules, and smaller once like me and all other get app certification failed because of the failure of the certifier itself, then after that i dont get an "sorry", nothing, i must submit my app again and wait ... 7 or more days. now i am wating since 12.02. thats day 13. :( and whatsapp gets 3 updates in 3 days...

Can someone actually explain in detail how and why the Audio playback API is necessary and how the other apps work without it?

As far as I can tell, WP7.X never had the ability to keep WiFi alive always and WP8 did not initially have this ability either.

In developing countries, whatsapp is very popular and people use it on WiFi only (because there are no unlimited messaging (sms) plans and data plans are expensive)

In this WiFi only use case, when your screen is off, you are completely and totally disconnected from the world (no data packet connection, no WiFi) and consequently, no messaging apps can receive or send data. Even if whatsapp invests in server infrastructure for "push", it is useless coz there is no connection to "wake up" the app and push the messages to it. Backgrounding agents will also be useless as.........again, there is absolutely no internet connection.

As far as I can tell, there can be no real time messaging apps without some sort of "hack" to keep WiFi alive at all times for people without data packages.

I think RudyZ and rockstarzzz might actually be saying more or less the same thing but it would be fantastic is the WPCentral team could do an article on this and actually investigate/explain this issue.

To be perfectly honest, this seems like Microsoft's shortcoming (Designing a modern smartphone OS that can be rendered useless by disconnecting from internet) and Whatsapp's ingenuity (in finding an alternative API to get around the limitations)

Well! I still have to wait for my message to appear when I open my whatsapp! On my blackberry it's there when I open it as was the case with my Nokia 808. Something seems to be amiss with windows phone, though!

Great, this shows whatsapp guys they now want to make this app proper and as few bugs as possible. We now see more and more apps really getting proper, now that many 3rd party apps are getting updated, where is Microsoft on their apps, Skype, facebook and twitter app